This Bear is Ready for Duck SeasonPhoto: Dan NexonMajor strike in India to protest liberalization. William Burr: Presidential Decision Directive 59 and nuclear warfighting under Carter.James Joyner provides further dissection of the apparent implosion of the US exit strategy in Afghanistan.Fresh Air interviews Doug Sanders about his new book, The Myth of the Muslim Tide. Zephyr Teachout at Mobilizing Ideas on "Big Data and Big Money."David...
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Friday Nerd Blogging: A Day Early
Check out this wonderfully exhaustive application of bureaucratic politics to Star Wars. The basic argument is that it was not the rebellion that really doomed the Empire but inter-service rivalry. The best line involves the Army's limited motivation to help the Navy (who lost the plans to the Death Star). I will not give it away here. Enjoy!
New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy: D.B. Jackson’s Thieftaker
My second NBinSFF podcast is live. “D.B. Jackson” is David B. Coe’s pen name for his new historical-fantasy series, The Thieftaker Chronicles. Thieftaker (Tor Books, 2012) centers on Ethan Kaille, a private detective and conjurer, as he investigates a murder in colonial Boston. David, who received a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford University before embarking on a career as a novelist, weaves in plenty of period details and historical...
Wednesday Afternoon Video
Morning Link, with Commentary, on the Shrinking Place of Theory in Sociology and IR
I'm crashing on multiple deadlines, so in lieu of "morning linkage".... Last night I was in a twitter conversation with Phil Arena and Kindred Winecoff about Fabio Rojas' recent post at orgtheory.net concerning the incredible shrinking vocation of social theory. Roja's observations echoe themes that we've been talking about at the Duck, both in print and in PTJ and my 10 August 2012 podcast (m4a). After quoting Kieran Healy's excerpt from his...
Can Kofi Annan Build Democratic Time?
Patient voters in Zimbabwe, from The Guardian 2008.Democracy sits in time. It is a looping circuit of accountability between leaders and led. Voters authorise leaders to act on certain problems. Through everyday experience and media reports those voters can track if the leaders are doing what they said they’d do. Another election comes around and voters can stick or twist, authorising another set of actions. The loop of democracy creates...
Duck of Minerva Podcasts
This is just a quick note to ask for input.I'm planning out the Duck of Minerva podcast schedule for the next few weeks. My original plan was to alternate interviews with some kind of "riff" episode involving two or more Duck contributors. But PTJ will be unavailable and most of the Duck crew is really busy, so I've been focusing on interview episodes.I've either scheduled or am in the process of scheduling those interviews. I'm very pleased...
Tuesday Morning Linkage: Things Fall Apart
Maybe we should have named the blog the "Seal of Minerva."Photo: Dan NexonThe US exit strategy in Afghanistan is in shambles; Josh Foust explains. Jing Gao describes condemnations of the anti-Japan riots on Weibo (via Doug Saunders); LA Times story quotes Jessica Weiss on the riots, who knows much about these things (via Erica Chenoweth). Aaron Belkin et al. assess the impact of the repeal of DADT (PDF). Spoiler Alert: military effectiveness...
What’s Most Distressing about the Leaked Romney Video
Just like Barack Obama in 2008, Mitt Romney apparently believes the silly theories of partisan preference popular among his base. Or he's craven enough to peddle the argument to his donors. Neither is good news.At least Obama's caricature was sympathetic to the other side.
Monday Morning Linkage
New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy is now available via the iTunes store.Bizarro 2004 continues: this time, Republicans spend lots of time complaining about systematic bias in polling (via).Protest September continues: Islamic world, China, Chicago, OWS....Taylor Favrel provides analysis of the Sino-Japanse island dispute. Civil war continues in Syria (Syrian aircraft hit Lebanese territory, Revolutionary Guard said to have advisors in...
Saturday Musical Interlude
Saturday Morning Linkage
The cheesecake wore a raspberry sorbet.Photo: Dan Nexon Oops (updated)..., I forgot to add a link to coverage of the anti-Japanese riots and protests in China, and to backstory on the purchase of the islands. A thoughtful piece by Jill Sargent Russel at Kings of War on Syria, diplomacy, and intervention.Jay Ulfelder expresses concern about the future of democracy in South Africa. BLTN: my colleague Chris Fair argues that it is time to...